Australian Open: Tiafoe tops Anderson! Cilic, Berdych and Tsitsipas win
The world no. 6 and Wimbledon finalist Kevin Anderson has scored another early Australian Open exit, failing to reach the third round in Melbourne for the seventh time following a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 loss against the young American Frances Tiafoe in three hours! The 20-year-old American will compete in the third round of a Major for the second time in his career, outplaying the better-ranked opponent to secure the win in four sets, his most significant one so far. Anderson struggled a little bit physically (he didn't play that well in the opening match too) but we shouldn't take anything away from the young gun who fired 47 winners and 27 unforced errors to topple Kevin's 50-35 ratio, winning 12 points more than the South African to emerge as a deserved winner.
Frances played better on both the first and second serve, getting broken twice but creating much more damage on the return with 14 break points up for grabs. He converted four and that was enough to push him over the finish line and into the last 32 where he will meet Andreas Seppi. Kevin stole the opening set with a late break in game 10 and he opened a 3-0 lead in set number two to establish a solid lead that he should have converted into two sets to love lead. Instead of that, Frances bounced back to win six of the last seven games, breaking Anderson in games five and nine before holding at love at 5-4 to deliver the set and gain a massive boost before the rest of the encounter.
The American secured another good return game at 1-1 in the third and he was on fire in his games, hitting a lot of service winners and dominating with his forehand to leave the opponent with no chances. Kevin stayed in touch until 5-5 in the fourth set when Frances grabbed a crucial break, repelling two break points while serving for the match in the following game and sealing the deal with a volley winner for one of his best results at Majors so far. The last year's finalist Marin Cilic is through to the third round for the eighth time at Melbourne Park, defeating Mackenzie McDonald 7-5, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 in a grueling three hours and 37 minutes.
The Croat blasted 25 aces and 67 winners overall but also 56 unforced errors, missing some forehands in the pivotal moments but still closing the match without further troubles against the youngster who broke him three times to stay in the encounter for almost four hours. The American fought well in the opening set before giving his serve away in game 12, cheering himself to fight even stronger in set number two where he saved no less than six set points to steal it 11-9 in the tie break after more than 70 minutes! They traded four breaks in the closing stages of the third set and Marin grabbed it 6-4 with three breaks in total, moving a set away from the win and saving the best tennis for the fourth set when he sailed through his service games.
Mackenzie was there to compete until 4-4 when he suffered a break that pushed Marin over the top in what was a challenging day at the office for the 6th seed. Tomas Berdych will play in the third round of the Australian Open for the 12th time and the ninth in a row after another commanding win over Robin Haase, ousting the Dutch player 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 in just 79 minutes! The Czech lost only nine points in his games, never facing a break point and stealing rival's serve five times from seven opportunities to control the scoreboard all the time and book the place in the next round in what was his 203rd Grand Slam match.
Berdych had 28 winners and 17 unforced errors and Haase couldn't match that pace to end his run in round two. The 14th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas took down a qualifier Viktor Troicki 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 in two and a half hours for his seventh Grand Slam win, firing 53 winners and 34 unforced errors to leave the Serb behind after a great fight in the fourth set that saw a single break of serve.
Second round results:
[18]Diego Schwartzman (ARG) vs Denis Kudla (USA) 6-4 7-5 3-6 6-7(6) 6-4 [19]Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) vs [Q]Stefano Travaglia (ITA) 3-6 6-3 3-6 6-4 6-3 [14]Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) vs [Q]Viktor Troiciki (SRB) 6-3 2-6 6-2 7-5 Andreas Seppi (ITA) vs Jordan Thompson (AUS) 6-3 6-4 6-4 Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs Robin Haase (NED) 6-1 6-3 6-3 [6]Marin Cilic (CRO) vs Mackenzie McDonald (USA) 7-5 6-7(9) 6-4 6-4 Frances Tiafoe (USA) vs [5]Kevin Anderson (RSA) 4-6 6-4 6-4 7-5 [26]Fernando Verdasco (ESP) vs Radu Albot (MDA) 6-1 7-6(2) 6-3
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2ClaIdE
No comments